


Tear stained

by TetrodotoxinB



Series: Whumptober 2019 [14]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Day 14, Off screen, Prompt: Tear stained, Whumptober 2019, death of a minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 04:28:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TetrodotoxinB/pseuds/TetrodotoxinB
Summary: Something happened, Jack can literally see the evidence of that on Mac's face. He just doesn't know what.





	Tear stained

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by [Secret_Library98](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secret_Library98/pseuds/Secret_Library98).

Riley and Bozer are already waiting for him when Jack jogs up to exfil.

“Where’s Mac?” Riley asks with a raised eyebrow.

Jack bends over, putting his hands on his thighs to catch his breath. “He, uh, we-” Jack points his thumb over his shoulder back towards the building. 

“He’s still in there?” Riley asks incredulously.

“You split up?!” Matty shouts over the comms.

Jack waves his hands expressively and Matty’s not there to see it, but then Jack remembers that Matty also has super-spy-ninja-magic and can definitely see him so he waves a little more. “He said he needed to go get a thing. Some electro-thingamabob. I don’t know. He said we’d meet up at exfil.”

“Mac, where are you?” Matty calls over the comms. Jack recognizes the tone as her “angry but soon to be downright terrified” voice. 

There’s no answer.

“He’s coming. He said he was gonna meet us here,” Jack reiterates. 

“Jack Dalton, when was the last time you saw him?” Matty demands.

Shit. “Uh, we split up in the server room,” Jack says.

“You know damn well that I was asking for the time,” Matty snaps.

“Okay, okay. Hang on, let me think,” Jack replies. “Okay. I got it. So I checked when I left the server room which would have been about five minutes after he left. When was that?”

There’s a pause and Riley taps on her laptop one handed. “That was 10:03 which means Mac split at 9:58. So it’s been nearly forty-five minutes that’s he been alone. Has he not been checking in?”

Jack does that opened-mouthed, idiot shrug again. “I- I thought everyone’s comms went to Matty. I thought he was checking in with you.”

“Dalton, I’m going to strangle you, but not right now. We need a tac team on the ground _now._ Give me a minute to see what we can scramble that’s in the area.”

Jack can tell that Matty’s seething, but mostly out of concern. And honestly, Jack feels like he deserves every bit of it and more. Sure, Mac was the one to say he needed to go off on his own, but Jack is his overwatch and keeping Mac safe from his own idiot ideas is Jack’s job. A job that he’s failed to do and now Mac is missing.

“I’ve got a JSOC team that can make it there from Berlin in just under four hours. That’s the best I got,” Matty says. Jack hates the defeat in her voice, the quiet way she accepts that her best probably won’t be enough.

“Matty, this is my fault. I should be the one-” The sound of gunfire in the distance stops Jack cold. “Matty, we can’t wait four hours. Hell, we can’t wait ten minutes. Something is happening right now and unless I go over there and pull him out we’re gonna be four hours too damn late.”

There’s a pause, and then Matty says, “Please don’t get hurt, Dalton. We can’t lose you both.”

And if that doesn’t make Jack’s stomach twist up in knots nothing will, because Matty isn’t saying “we can’t,” she’s saying “I can’t.” 

“I know, Matty. I won’t screw this up, too.”

Jack doesn’t wait to see if Riley and Bozer follow him because he’s going either way, but it’s comforting to hear Bozer’s muttered complaints and Riley’s snippy comebacks right behind him as they sprint through the undergrowth towards the firefight. 

They’re getting close, close enough that they have to slow their approach and crouch to avoid the stray bullets that are flying through the trees. As they approach the treeline, an explosion shakes the ground. They watch as a plume of smoke rises from the far side of the complex.

“That had to have been Mac” Jack murmurs to Riley and Bozer.

“You think he was in it?” Riley asks worriedly.

Jack shakes his head and pretends that he’s not secretly panicking over the same thing. “Nah. The kid’s too smart to blow himself up like that. He’s around here somewhere, we just gotta find him.”

The firefight stops after the explosion and they use the break to hurry along the edge of the forest towards the blast site. As they crest a small hill, Jack thinks he hears something down in the creek bed to their left.

He stops and listens, hoping to hear it again, and that’s when he makes it out. “Jack! Jack!!!” 

“Mac?” Jack asks, glancing around. He can’t _see_ Mac, but then leave it to Mac to improvise a duck blind or gilly suit.

“Over here,” Mac calls quietly.

Jack hurries down the embankment, Riley and Bozer hot on his heels. When they reach the bottom, Mac and four young boys appear from behind a thicket that Jack hadn’t even noticed.

“Mac…”

“You’ve got him?” Matty asks, interrupting Jack’s imminent questioning of Mac and his new companions.

“Yeah, we got him, Matty. Him and four kids,” Jack answers. Of course as soon as he says it he feels a tad uncharitable. These boys have seen some rough times — their clothes have holes, they’re dirty, and they’re all more than a little too thin for their ages. Jack knows _why_ Mac grabbed them, he just doesn’t know what they plan to do with four teenage boys.

“Forced labor, Jack. He kept them in the basement. I only realized they were there after I set the charges. If I hadn’t brought them-”

Jack holds up his hands. “Okay, okay, you did the right thing. Let’s sort the rest of this out later. Right now, we need to be on our way to exfil. Again.”

Jack and Mac lead the boys towards exfil, while Bozer and Riley bring up the rear. 

“So, what happened to checking in?” Jack asks all faux-casually.

“Yeah, about that...” Mac says, and then trails off before he completes the thought.

“You used your comm to make something didn’t you,” Jack guesses.

“Yeah,” Mac answers and Jack can tell that Mac knows Matty is going to rip him a new one. Jack, given his recent panic, is feeling like maybe Mac needs to hear it from someone other than himself that using your comm to build something without warning anyone first is not safe or smart. Jack lets the silence hang to make his point while they hurry back.

The return trip to exfil is much faster since they know where they’re going. It’s also helped that no one is shooting at them so they’re free to move quickly rather than worrying about staying concealed behind bushes and brambles. 

“Alright, we’re ready to go, Matty,” Jack confirms once they’ve arrived.

“Your helo is three minutes out. It’s gonna be a tight fit with your new friends,” Matty informs them.

“Copy,” Riley replies.

Suddenly, they’re standing around with no obvious threats and nowhere to be except where they are. Jack looks the boys over again and he wonders about their families, if they’re missed and where they’re from. The youngest looks about fourteen and the oldest maybe seventeen or eighteen. All too young to have their lives turned upside down by something like slavery. 

Jack glances over at Mac to see how he’s holding up, maybe see if he’s hiding any injuries today. Before, when they met up in the creek bed, Jack was so focused on two big things, namely that Mac was still alive and that he had suddenly acquired four kids. Now though, Jack sees other things, like the blood on Mac’s hands and shirt. It’s concerning but something tells him that there’s more to this story.

Jack takes a couple steps closer to Mac. “Hey,” he says quietly. “What happened?”

Mac sniffs hard to clear his nose and swallows. “I’m fine.”

Jack rolls his eyes. “I didn’t ask that but thank you for volunteering that information. So let’s try again. Whose blood is that because I know it’s not yours.”

Mac shakes his head and that’s when Jack notices. From a little farther away, all the little tracks on Mac’s face looked like sweat that had dripped down, leaving little lines in the dirt on his face. But up close it’s easier to see that a fair few aren’t from sweat at all. They’re tear stains.

Slowly and gently, so he doesn’t spook Mac, Jack puts his hand on Mac’s arm. “Hey, I know something bad happened. Tell me.”

Again Mac shakes his head, instead turning his attention to the boys. The helo isn’t far and Jack has been ignoring the loud _whump whump whump_ of the rotors in favor of talking to Mac, but now it’ll have to wait for later. Quickly, they gather together and herd the boys through the downwash and onto the chopper. Matty wasn’t kidding either. It’s a small craft and Jack’s gonna have enough on his hands with these kids that whatever Mac’s hiding is going to have to wait for later.

*****

It’s twelve hours later and they’re home, the kids are in protective custody, they’ve been debriefed, and Matty has officially ordered Jack to figure out “what the hell happened to Mac.” It’s obvious enough that everyone is worried, but Mac has evaded their questions — giving nonanswers, changing the subject, or leaving the room altogether — for long enough now. 

Jack slips one of the tac guys twenty bucks to hide Mac’s stuff. It’s a dirty trick but without his car keys he’ll have to catch a ride home with Jack. Jack knows he only needs a few uninterrupted minutes with Mac to get the truth.

When Mac realizes his stuff is gone, he glares at Jack like he knows but Jack just smiles. The tear stains might be long gone, but the hurt is written all over him and Jack doesn’t feel the least bit sorry about cornering him over it.

As soon as they’re seated in the car Mac says, “I know you took my keys so you could have time to ask me about what happened, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

Jack nods and cranks the car. “That’s fair. Sometimes there are things I don’t want to talk about, either. Doesn’t mean that it’s healthy to hold on to it that way, though.”

They pull out onto the street and head towards home, but Jack, for maybe the first time since he got a car, doesn’t turn on the radio. The silence is deafening but worth it for the way Mac begins to fidget after only a couple of minutes. Still, it takes until they’re jammed up in LA rush hour traffic for fifteen minutes in the same place until Mac speaks.

“There was a fifth boy, Marten,” he says quietly.

Jack’s stomach sinks because he already knows how this ends even if he hasn’t heard the details yet. “What happened to him?

Mac looks at his hands, his long fingers flexing and stretching. “When I broke them out, a guard heard us. It’s what lead to the firefight. When he saw us escaping, he opened fire. Marten took two to the back and went down. I managed to take out the guard and I tried to stop the bleeding, but…”

This is hard to say and harder to carry so Jack saves Mac the trouble of coming right out with it. “You couldn’t save him.”

Mac shakes his head and Jack can see fresh tears drip off his chin. “I don’t think they could have saved him if he were shot outside an emergency room. Jack, the exit wounds…”

Mac sniffles and Jack can’t help himself. He grabs Mac’s knee, ignoring the stagnant traffic. “It’s not your fault, and I know you know that, but you need to hear it, too.”

“I tried to stop the bleeding. I knew-” Mac swallows and swipes at the tears on his cheeks. “I knew it wouldn’t work, but I couldn’t just leave him there.”

“You did what you could,” Jack reaffirms.

Mac nods. “I did. We stayed as long as we could, but he was still alive when more guards came.”

Jack can read between the lines, not that the subtext is all that faint. The kid was still alive when they left him to die. Alone. 

Fuck, now Jack’s tearing up. “Look, Mac. If his injuries were as bad as you say then he didn’t hang around all that long. And staying would’ve just meant you and the rest of them died. You made a really, _really_ hard call, one that no one should be forced to make. Don’t beat yourself up anymore than you already have,” Jack says.

Behind them someone honks and Jack looks up to see that traffic has inched forward about three and a half feet. He rolls forward enough to fill the gap and turns back to Mac who’s doing the ugly cry in the passenger seat. Jack would give anything to make this better, but the reality is that this one is gonna hurt for a long time. 

They sit, and then eventually drive, in silence. Somewhere between their interstate exit and Mac’s house, Mac manages to stop crying, though Jack thinks Mac’s composure is tenuous at best. Jack pulls into the drive and puts the car in park, turning expectantly to Mac. Mac just looks at his hands but makes no move to get out.

Finally, when a minute has passed and Mac’s gone all fidgety again, Mac asks, “Would you mind staying?”

Jack couldn’t be more relieved. “Brought my go-bag just in case you asked,” he says with a grin, killing the engine.

“Jack, you have an entire laundry basket in the laundry room ‘just in case I have to stay over’,” Mac points out, mocking Jack’s Texan accent.

“Make fun of my accent one more time and see if I grill you another steak,” Jack mutters as Mac keys into the house. 

And the banter is good, familiar, safe, but Jack knows too damn well from his experiences to think that something as heavy as what happened is over. Jack works on dinner and listens to Mac, letting him set the pace. He knows they’ll circle back around, likely after dinner and a beer, once the sun has set and the darkness has crept in. But Jack doesn’t plan on going anywhere, not while Mac still needs him.


End file.
